


low-hanging cloud, heavy with rain

by quietmoon



Series: SASO 2016 [8]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Introspection, M/M, [sigh], and ukai is so smitten i'm just, it's.....really soft.... orz, set right before nationals begin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2020-07-28 14:29:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20065558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietmoon/pseuds/quietmoon
Summary: On a summer night rich with realisation, Ukai Keishin makes a promise to himself.





	low-hanging cloud, heavy with rain

**Author's Note:**

> _reposted from my [orphaned work](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7255726) with AO3's permission_

Keishin is just almost (not really) packing up when Takeda peeks in through the sliding gym doors and catches him off guard.

Takeda smiles, a small apologetic thing. "Sorry, Ukai-kun. I didn't mean to give you a fright."

Keishin shakes it off with a jerk of his head — "No worries, you didn't," — and goes back to sorting through the messy stacks of paper spread haphazardly on the floor in front of him. All the graphs and plans and tactics are starting to blur together, snaking like knotted thread across the page before his eyes. And yes, it's _exhausting_, he's so tired his muscles are beginning to ache, and he himself knows he's too sleepy to really contribute anything of use or come up with something new that'll help them at this point. He knows that. Logically, he knows. But every time Keishin even starts to think about packing all the notes away and locking the gym up, his fingers start twitching restlessly and his eyes are drawn back.

He's caught up in his thoughts again, eyes uselessly skimming the page and not taking any of the information in, when Takeda makes him jump for a second time.

"Ukai-kun."

Keishin inhales sharply, and looks up. Takeda is now gently leaning forward and peering over his shoulder, the gym doors wide open behind him through which Keishin can clearly, heart-stoppingly, make out a vast expanse of inky sky. It's a cloudy night, he realises. Muggy with late summer heat and humidity. Rain is coming.

"Ukai-kun."

"Sh-Shit," Keishin blurts out, focus dragged back again. He rubs a hand over his face — _I gotta shave before we go tomorrow_ — and looks up at Takeda with a rueful smile. "Sorry, I keep getting distracted, huh... My thoughts are a mess. Am I keeping you back?"

"No, take your time," Takeda says quickly, "it's fine, it's fine."

His tone is placating. Keishin glares back down at the paper in front of him, at the game plans, volleyball tactics, team player statistics, the folded corners marking a chapter of research on yet another team, some new opponent revealed through the open door of Nationals.

"Did you come to lock up?" _Of course he did, he's a faculty member. And look at me staying so late on grounds, no wonder he wants me to leave already._ He glances at the time on Takeda's watch and blanches. "Crap, I'm sorry, lemme just—"

But Takeda ignores him, simply leaning back against the wall beside Keishin and slides down, and Keishin has to halt his hurried movements to get up off the floor himself.

"No, I can understand." Takeda glances across at him. "I feel quite restless, too. Nothing will be the same after today."

Keishin holds eye contact for a moment, a long heavy moment between them, before breaking away under the weight of it.

He licks his dry lips. What, with trying to get the kids ready for the quarter- and semi-finals of regionals, with the tsunami that was the lead-up to the matches against Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa, Keishin hasn't spent all that much time alone with Takeda recently. They've both been busy — the latter with his responsibilities as a full-time faculty member on top of trying to take care of a team as proactive as theirs, and Keishin working as hard as he can to keep it that way, indirectly make Takeda's job even harder. And it's a good kind of busy, definitely good, but something in his chest has missed this. He... really _missed_ talking about nothing and everything with the man sitting beside him, missed it more than he thinks he realised until now, now when it slots back into place like a final jigsaw piece.

Keishin hums, amused, and leans his head back, closing his eyes. Being alone with Takeda doesn't feel like it used to — it feels better. A welcome rare moment stretches between, one that he can finally take the time to appreciate, and he does so. Wholly.

_Takeda Ittetsu_. 

It's okay. Keishin knows. He's known for a while.

Takeda's light breathing is barely audiblebeside him, and yet Keishin can't focus on anything but his presence. Through the open door, the sound of cicadas echo. They're so much louder at night without the bustle of students or customers to drown them out, so much clearer. Things are so much clearer on nights like this.

Keishin loves late summertime; he loves how it feels both like a beginning and an end, he loves the heat, he loves the rain, he loves the loud silence. He loves the weight of the humidity on his skin, pressing in. And although he didn't realise when it happened — wasn't aware of the process or journey that brought him here — he understands, perhaps inherently, that the bridge of quiet between them feels, to him, very much the same. It carries that same taste of sun, of warm late nights. The bittersweet goodbye, and the heady anticipation of more to come.

Keishin swears he can taste it on his lips. He licks them again— _dry already_. (The sky outside is heavy with the promise of rain.)

Something is falling into place. "I'll do the first half of the driving tomorrow, let you catch up on some sleep," Takeda says in a hushed voice. Keishin keeps his eyes closed, but hums in thanks. His mind is racing, his heartbeat slow.

"You won't get tired, Sensei?"

"Nah, of course not." He can feel Takeda shift beside him, a barely-there shift in the air. "It's the least I can do, really. We have so much to pay you back for, Ukai-kun, all of this is largely thanks to you. You gave them a chance. You made this possible."

At this, Keishin has to open his eyes, and he fixes Takeda with a frown. Takeda meets it with an open gaze, smile soft, expression unreadable in a subtle way.

"It's you who's made use of the time we've had, who led us here." The smile widens. "Our kids are amazing, but you're... You're the trunk of a tree stretching up and up and up." Then he lets out a low gust of breath throw pursed lips, glasses sliding down his nose, and Keishin finds himself fixated on him, unable to look away even if he wanted— not that he's wanted to, not for a while, not that he isn't resigned to this, hasn't accepted it, not as if he doesn't know what he's gotten himself into even if he's in it alone.

_Something is falling to place._

"Nationals!" Takeda is exclaiming quietly to himself, and he looks happy, and Keishin's heart grows three sizes at the sight. "I can't believe it, to be honest. Or, I can, but I'm so happy I get to, does that make sense? This is just— I can't believe it! And we can't give up, we'll keep pushing forwards. we'll keep winning! We'll keep fighting. _Karasuno, fight!_"

_How can your chest feel so light and so heavy at the same time?_ _ Something heavy, falling into place._

Keishin grins. "You're as much a part of this time as anyone, Sensei," is all that leaves his lips, but he hopes the extra meaning carries through, that the silent words are still heard.

From the way Takeda smiles back at him, he thinks they might are. He thinks they are.

"Y-You're part of this tree with me," he finds himself blundering on, mouth ahead of mind. "If I'm the trunk, you're the branches."

Half the time Keishin doesn't really have much of an idea where Takeda's going with his dramatic inspirational speeches and metaphors, but this time, he can picture it clearly in his head: a solid tree, bark scarred and chipped and thick, with wide strong branches, weighed down by rich jade leaves; a murder of crows perched at the top, ready to fly -- _what was it you said?_ \-- up and up and up.

Going to Nationals. Growing the tree. A heavy silence between Takeda Ittetsu and himself, falling into place. Dark skies, cloudy with summer rain, and an empty gym ringing with the sound of cicadas. And like that, just like that, all of a sudden and months too late — an ending, and perhaps a beginning — Keishin realises what he wants.

_If we win... I'll tell him._

Takeda tilts his head, absentmindedly gazing out the open door far across the dim hall. "They worked hard, didn't they?"

"They worked hard," Keishin agrees automatically, mind a million miles away. "It's been a good year."

_And if we lose, I'll tell him._

"For us, Ukai-kun," corrects Takeda with a teasing laugh, bumping their shoulders together. "It's all the same tree. Their team, our team, _Karasuno Fight! _No giving up, no worries until we're done! Right? Onwards to the bitter end!"

Ukai leans his head back again, this time with eyes open. "R-Right. To the end."

Takeda laughs again, eyes shining, and gets up. Keishin follows without thinking about it, and they bid each other goodnight after locking up the gym. But he was right — nothing's the same. Keishin can feel it in the air as he walks home, the prickle of realisation pressing into his skin alongside the humidity. It's starts raining halfway home, heavy and loud on the warm tarmac.

He looks up.

_Either way, I'll tell him._

**Author's Note:**

> [prompt](https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/13854.html?thread=5239838#cmt5239838)


End file.
